Former Ukrainian president jailed

From the International Report delivered to the CPGB-ML’s central committee on 5 November

Former president Yulia Tymoshenko, a leader of the Ukraine’s 2004 ‘Orange’ counter-revolution, has been jailed for seven years for exceeding her powers when in office to broker a gas deal with Russia, causing the country an estimated loss of US$200 million. Ukrainian prosecutors are also investigating allegations that she was involved in the contract killing of Yevhen Shcherban, a member of parliament, in 1996, along with Pavlo Lazarenko, who was prime minister at the time and has since been jailed in the United States for fraud and money laundering.

Naturally accusations are flying that Ukraine’s president Yanukovich has trumped up these charges in order to remove a powerful electoral rival from the scene, and Tymoshenko’s conviction has been denounced both by western imperialism and by Russia.

According to the Asia Times Online, “The majority opinion in Ukraine seems to be that the charges against the iconic figure of the ‘Orange’ revolution are probably justified. People know she is a billionaire child of the days of ‘wild capitalism’ in the 1990s when in the debris of the Soviet Union’s collapse and by exploiting the general lawlessness, Ukraine’s newly rich made fortunes out of state property – often enough off Ukraine’s import of Russian natural gas. The apathy of the people toward Tymoshenko’s fate underlines the public awareness that the ‘Orange’ revolution was not a revolution at all, but in reality a game of musical chairs between Ukrainian millionaires and billionaires.” (‘Ukraine scores own goal for Russia’ by M K Bhadrakumar, 13 October 2011)